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Having grown weary of the media’s agenda-driven reporting on the coronavirus outbreak that has more of a flavor of propaganda for the Democratic Party than it does disseminating the facts, President Donald Trump fired back on Monday.
With the media pushing a narrative that the president was slow to react to the Wuhan virus COVID-19 and that this resulted in a greater loss of life, Trump played a video at the White House briefing laying out a timeline of actions his administration has taken and highlighting how some in the media downplayed the virus — essentially forcing reporters to watch it.
The tactic used the media’s own words, which didn’t sit well with the media elite. Well, that and the fact that Trump is now focusing on the success they’re having in the battle against the virus, as he maneuvers to reopen the country.
Before running the video, titled “The Media Minimized The Risk From the Start,” the president denounced a New York Times story over the weekend that claimed he was warned about the possibility of a pandemic early on.
“So the story in The New York Times is a total fake,” he said. “It’s a fake newspaper, and they write fake stories.”
The video featured a quote from Times reporter Maggie Haberman talking about the early decision by Trump to ban travel from China — she would push back later in an attempt to maintain her credibility with the liberal media cabal, claiming her words were taken out of context. The quote is seen here:
“As there were more cases and it was clear that it was spreading out of China — where it originated — the President took this move that he was widely criticized for by Democrats and even some Republicans at the time. Which was he halted a number of flights from China into the U.S. The idea was to halt the spread of the disease, keep transmissions to a minimum. He was accused of xenophobia. He was accused of making a racist move. At the end of the day, it was probably effective, because it did actually take a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus.”
The video featured praise of the administration from “bipartisan governors,” which included California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom saying Trump has been “proactive.”
“So we could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors,” the president told reporters, at the conclusion of the video. “We can give you hundreds of clips just like that. We have them. We didn’t want this to go on too long, but I just want to say it’s very sad when people write false stories, like in that case I guess it was mostly from the New York Times which is a highly — I mean, if you had libel laws, they would have been out of business even before they will end up going out of business. It’s too bad.”
The media’s predictable response to having their collective rear ends handed to them was to mock and dismiss the video, with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl comparing it to a “campaign ad,” as he probed that angle.
“Let me ask you about the video,” Karl asked. “I’ve never seen a video like that played in this room. It looks a bit like a campaign ad. Who produced that video for you?”
Trump said the video was created by White House social media director Dan Scavino in “less than two hours,” the reason being to keep the media “honest.” He added that he didn’t expect that to happen.
“That was done by a group in the office and it was done just — we just put some clips together,” he said. “I could give you — I bet you I have over 100 more clips even better than them. They were pieced together over the last two hours.”
When asked why he felt the need to show the video, Trump replied, “Because we’re getting fake news and I like to have it corrected.”
CBS News reporter Kathryn Watson took care to note that the video was “paid for by American taxpayers.”
"That was done by a group in the office" including social media director Dan Scavino, in the last two hours, Trump says of his campaign ad-like video played in the briefing room.
I.e., the testimonial was paid for by American taxpayers.
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) April 13, 2020
The president was so thorough in exposing the media for its dishonesty and bias that former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino called it “the greatest moment in the history of television.”
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1249821224601034752?s=20
The president’s strategy was highly effective in stirring the media into action, showing the American people that the press is not there to “report” on events, but that they are first and foremost an adversary.
CNN’s primadonna reporter Jim Acosta laughingly claimed Trump’s efforts to expose the media equated to the president being “out of control.”
“I have to tell you, that is the biggest meltdown I have ever seen from a President of the United States in my career,” Acosta told CNN anchor Erin Burnett, speaking as if he has credibility among the American people — he doesn’t, outside of Trump haters.
“I don’t think a reasonable person could watch what we just saw over the last hour and conclude that the president is in control. He sounds like he is out of control,” he added. “And [Trump] was ranting and raving for the better part of the last hour during that news conference. As John King was just saying, he’s claiming he has authorities that he doesn’t have.”
Acosta falsely reported that Trump “ignored the severity of this crisis,” claiming “the walls are closing in on him when it comes to managing this crisis.”
The take away to all of this is that with the president setting his sights on reopening the country and getting Americans back to work and earning paychecks, the media is going to fight this effort every step of the way. Fiercely. Their motivation being that a tanked economy may be their only chance in delivering a defeat to Trump in November.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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